Our Visit to Bermuda

On Saturday, after finding the newspaper with Justin on the cover, we took the bus to the aquarium. The girls, Karen, Allison, and Justin stayed while Gary and Frank continued on the bus to Hamilton to get parts for boats and ship off some items. A few hours later Frank and Gary rejoined them and they all took the bus back to St. George. Frank found out the spinnaker was going to take a good while longer to repair due to the sailmaker's schedule. So, a few more days would be spent in Bermuda. Here are some pictures from the aquarium and the little harbour in front of it.

On Sunday, November 10th, Gary, Allison and Justin had to catch a plane and return home. Turns out they had the wrong time, so after saying our so-longs, we were surprised to find them at the White Horse Tavern an hour later. The girls and Justin were delighted to have a few more hours to play, so they were off to Tobacco Bay again for rock climbing. Frank and Karen had lunch with Gary and Allison again at the White Horse.

Frank replaced the broken starboard navigation light, but busted the lightbulb in the process. Shearwater had a spare and Stu was nice enough to give it to Frank. The light worked perfectly after that.

Monday was a holiday in Bermuda - Remembrance Day (like Veteran's Day in the States). This messed up our plans for a day or two in getting a propane tank filled with gas. But, Frank eventually got it taken care of.

We spent some time visiting Tobacco Bay which has a nice beach, the aforementioned rock cliffs, and nice snorkeling areas. A very relaxing place, and the weather was wonderful pretty much all week. Here are some pictures of Tobacco Bay.

We spent another day going to Hamilton, and then taking the ferry over to the DockYards. Oh, and the girls wanted lunch at Kentucky Fried Chicken. How ironic. The Dockyards has a number of tourist attractions including the Bermuda Maritime Museum which is located at an old fort. This is an impressive fort, and the museum was quite enjoyable as well. The girls spent a couple of hours watching the dolphins at an area set aside to let people swim with dolphins. Karen and Frank don't like the idea of keeping these beautiful, intelligent creatures captive. But, we had to admit they looked healthy and happy and were treated well. We also visited the Glass Blowing Factory, the Rum Cake Bakery, the Clay Works Shop, and the girls got to see a real marine buoy. A few pictures from the area.

On Wednesday, Karen and the girls went back to Hamilton for some more museum visits/field trips. Frank stayed to work on the boat, update the web site, and check on the sail. Karen and the girls just needed to be back by 6:30 for a dinner with Stu and EA on Shearwater. Of course, Karen and the girls were getting to be a bit late getting back. Thank goodness they took the Motorola walkie talkie. They called Frank when they realized they got on the wrong bus - it would have taken them to St. Davids. They got off right away, and a nice security guard took them to his company's dock which was on the opposite side of the harbor from our dinghy docks. He lit his headlights out over the water so Frank could find them and pick them up with our dinghy. As a result, we were not even really late getting to Shearwater for the 6:30 dinner.

Stu and EA treated us to a nice dinner. It was nice visiting with them on their boat which has all sorts of nice customizations that they have made over the last couple of years. Stu constantly tinkers with new ideas and features - all geared towards better comfort and maintainability.

Thursday Frank spent the day doing final preparations on the boat, and picked up the spinnaker. Karen and the girls got some final provisions after they visited one last museum. Everything looked good for a Friday morning departure, which we did...(see Bermuda to British Virgin Islands Passage).